Dancing the Supply Chain: Toward Transformative Supply Chain Management

Overcoming enduring inequalities in Global Value Chains? Interpreting the case of Brazil’s Covid-19 vaccine supply through a chess metaphor

This article draws on the Covid-19 vaccine supply chain to illustrate the structural inequalities characterising Global Value Chains. We show how the highly unequal vaccine distribution between the Global North and the Global South is shaped by the concentration of high-added value activities of vaccine development and production in the Global North and their nationalistic economic policies. These policies are short-sighted, as they fail to take account of the health risks that low vaccination rates in the Global South entail, not only for the North, but for the whole world. Using the metaphor of pawns moving in a chess game, we advance two possible scenarios. In the first, regional suppliers from low- and middle-income Global South countries will remain unimportant actors in the global vaccine supply chain, leaving inequalities intact. In the second, these suppliers will upgrade their activities in the vaccine supply chain, supported by public policies fostering industrial infrastructure, systems reforms and technological standardisation, leading to a more polycentric supply chain configuration. The persisting concentration of the governance of Global Value Chains in the Global North, we argue, will not only exacerbate current inequalities, but also likely lead to worldwide health, economic and social vulnerabilities.

A Review of 4IR/5IR Enabling Technologies and Their Linkage to Manufacturing Supply Chain

Over the last decade, manufacturing processes have undergone significant change. Most factory activities have been transformed through a set of features built into a smart manufacturing framework. The tools brought to bear by the fourth industrial revolution are critical enablers of such change and progress. This review article describes the series of industrial revolutions and explores traditional manufacturing before presenting various enabling technologies. Insights are offered regarding traditional manufacturing lines where some enabling technologies have been included. The manufacturing supply chain is envisaged as enhancing the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 through their integration. A systematic literature review is undertaken to evaluate each enabling technology and the manufacturing supply chain and to provide some theoretical synthesis. Similarly, obstacles are listed that must be overcome before a complete shift to smart manufacturing is possible. A brief discussion maps out how the fourth industrial revolution has led to novel manufacturing technologies. Likewise, a review of the fifth industrial revolution is given, and the justification for this development is presented.

Beyond COVID-19 supply chain heroism, no dust settling yet – lessons learned at Rolls Royce about advancing risk management thinking

Purpose

While there is a rich body of risk management literature and while there have been valuable theoretical advancements on the specific impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on risks, this paper aims to posit that at least four more advancements are needed.

Design/methodology/approach

The co-author from Rolls Royce (RR) illustrates the risks experienced and risk management approaches taken in its manufacturing and supply chain operations both in the earlier stages of the pandemic as well as after the first year of the pandemic.

Findings

The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique risk scenario that is beyond the scope of most existing risk management literature. The impact of the pandemic is very multi-faceted, not location specific but very global and experienced throughout the entire supply chain, across industries and over a much extended timeline with multiple time horizons. In manufacturing operations, there have been major instances of supply chain heroism in the first year of the pandemic and there is a lot more work ahead.

Originality/value

The authors' co-created paper enriches the perspective on COVID-19 research in manufacturing and supply chain operations by pointing at empirical opportunities, the need for more inter disciplinary research and the need to consider multiple time horizons.

How to advance theory through literature reviews in logistics and supply chain management

Purpose

The discipline's most common uses for literature reviews—identifying gaps, developing research agendas, and categorizing the literature—too often fail to challenge, change or advance theoretical perspectives. The authors offer guidance to theorization through literature reviews. The key to theory advancement is consistency between the state of theory and the chosen review type.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual approach is taken. The authors identify shortcomings in literature reviews of logistics and supply chain management (L&SCM) research and develop a framework to aid theorization from literature.

Findings

Literature review types are categorized as inductive theory building, contextualized explanations, theory testing and interpretive sensemaking. The authors argue that the effectiveness of a review type depends on the prior state of theory, which ranges from nascent, to intermediate, to mature. The authors propose the interpretive sensemaking review as a novel review type rooted in the interpretive paradigm.

Practical implications

This study should be of immediate interest and value to logistics and supply chain management scholars—as well as scholars in other fields—because it offers a pathway to theory development through literature reviews. Appropriate applications of the proposed review types will result in more comprehensive theories.

Originality/value

This article lays down arguments for the need to change the way L&SCM scholars use literature reviews. It extends earlier work from the authors (Durach et al., 2017; A New Paradigm for Systematic Literature Reviews in Supply Chain Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management) by outlining four review types, and offering further insights to theorization, as is typically the goal in the synthesis step of literature reviews.

Stress testing supply chains and creating viable ecosystems

Businesses and governments are becoming increasingly concerned about the resilience of supply chains and calling for their review and stress testing. In this conceptual essay, we theorize a human-centred ecosystem viability perspective that spans the dimensions of resilience and sustainability and can be used as guidance for the conceptualization of supply chain resilience analysis in the presence of long-term crises. Subsequently, we turn to the technological level and present the digital supply chain twin as a contemporary instrument for stress testing supply chain resilience. We provide some implementation guidelines and emphasize that although resilience assessment of individual supply chains is important and critical for firms, viability analysis of intertwined supply networks and ecosystems represents a novel and impactful research perspective. One of the major outcomes of this essay is the conceptualization of a human-centred ecosystem viability perspective on supply chain resilience.

Exiting the COVID-19 pandemic: after-shock risks and avoidance of disruption tails in supply chains

Entering the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on supply chains. Reacting to the pandemic and adaptation in the "new normal" have been challenging tasks. Exiting the pandemic can lead to some after-shock effects such as "disruption tails." While the research community has undertaken considerable efforts to predict the pandemic's impacts and examine supply chain adaptive behaviors during the pandemic, little is known about supply chain management in the course of pandemic elimination and post-disruption recovery. If capacity and inventory management are unaware of the after-shock risks, this can result in highly destabilized production-inventory dynamics and decreased performance in the post-disruption period causing product deficits in the markets and high inventory costs in the supply chains. In this paper, we use a discrete-event simulation model to investigate some exit strategies for a supply chain in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our model can inform managers about the existence and risk of disruption tails in their supply chains and guide the selection of post-pandemic recovery strategies. Our results show that supply chains with postponed demand and shutdown capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly prone to disruption tails. We then developed and examined two strategies to avoid these disruption tails. First, we observed a conjunction of recovery and supply chain coordination which mitigates the impact of disruption tails by demand smoothing over time in the post-disruption period. Second, we found a gradual capacity ramp-up prior to expected peaks of postponed demand to be an effective strategy for disruption tail control.

Supply chain viability: conceptualization, measurement, and nomological validation

Supply chain viability (SCV) is an emerging concept of growing importance in operations management. This paper aims to conceptualize, develop, and validate a measurement scale for SCV. SCV is first defined and operationalized as a construct, followed by content validation and item measure development. Data have been collected through three independent samplings comprising a total of 558 respondents. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used in a step-wise manner for scale development. Reliability and validity are evaluated. A nomological model is theorized and tested to evaluate nomological validity. For the first time, our study frames SCV as a novel and distinct construct. The findings show that SCV is a hierarchical and multidimensional construct, reflected in organizational structures, organizational resources, dynamic design capabilities, and operational aspects. The findings reveal that a central characteristic of SCV is the dynamic reconfiguration of SC structures in an adaptive manner to ensure survival in the long-term perspective. This research conceptualizes and provides specific, validated dimensions and item measures for SCV. Practitioner directed guidance and suggestions are offered for improving SCV during the COVID-19 pandemic and future severe disruptions.

Exploring the roles of lead organisations in spreading sustainability standards throughout food supply chains in an emerging economy

Purpose

This paper investigates how food supply chains (SCs) introduce sustainability standards (i.e. organic and/or Fair Trade labels). The authors combined the concepts of power and dependence with types of governance mechanisms to analyse for-profit and cooperative organisations. The authors explored nuances of how lead organisations are spreading sustainability standards.

Design/methodology/approach

Four cashew nut and honey SCs were investigated as case studies in Brazil, with data gathered through 15 interviews, secondary data and field visits. Data were examined through a content analysis process following a combined deductive and inductive approach.

Findings

Sustainability is spread driven by market pressure, mainly through the diffusion of technical information, either by lead organisations enablers or inter-organisational relations. The authors found that the type and structure of organisations impact the source of power (mediated or non-mediated) and level of mutual dependence between buyer and supplier. For instance, suppliers that hold a strategic position use direct governance mechanisms, which, in turn, lessens the power imbalance in regard to the lead organisation. The authors found in the analysis, a close relation between governance mechanisms and the spread of sustainability, which is ultimately based on strong SC relationships.

Practical implications

By recognising their role and the contingencies in spreading sustainability standards along the SC, managers of lead organisations can better design their relationships as well as create strategies to increase their supply chain sustainability (SCS) performance.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the underexplored issue of how sustainability standards are spread throughout SCs in Latin America. Also, it shows how different types of SC rely on governance mechanisms that foster SCS.